Google May Utilize Your Gmail and Google Photos Data for Ad Targeting

Google has made a notable change to its privacy policy that could lead to targeted ads based on your personal data when using its personalized AI features. This update introduces an exception to its previous commitment not to utilize your Drive, Gmail, or Google Photos for personalized advertising. As of October 16th, the policy now states, “unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads.”

This means that if you’ve linked your Drive, Gmail, or Google Photos to AI Mode and other Search tools through Google’s Personal Intelligence feature—allowing these tools to enhance their responses or recommendations by understanding more about you—you might start seeing ads tailored to that content.

It’s important to note that advertisers do not gain access to your Drive, Gmail, or Photos data, nor do they receive personally identifiable information like your name or email address. Additionally, Google will not display ads based on sensitive categories such as race, sexual orientation, religion, or health.

Here’s what the policy outlines:
> “You may choose to allow certain Google services, including services like Search or Gemini Apps, to access data from other Google services you use, such as Google Photos and Workspace apps like Gmail and Drive, in order to provide you with a more personalized experience, subject to the policies and settings of the accessing service. For example, Search may process some of the data that you allow Search to access to personalize content, including ads.”
> “Depending on your settings, we may also show you personalized ads based on your interests, activity, or personalized content from Google services. For example, if you search for ‘mountain bikes,’ in Search you may see ads for sports equipment on YouTube.”

If you prefer to keep your personal data from being used for targeted ads, you can select which apps to disconnect from Search’s Personal Intelligence features or turn off Personalized Recommendations entirely through the Search Services Personalization settings page.